35In such circumstances, the applicant still has an interest in obtaining annulment of the contested acts, in that the repeal of an act of an institution does not constitute recognition of the unlawfulness of that act and has only prospective effect, unlike a judgment annulling an act, by which the act is eliminated retroactively from the legal order and is deemed never to have existed. Moreover, as acknowledged by the Council at the hearing, if the contested acts are annulled, it will be obliged to take the measures necessary to comply with that judgment, pursuant to Article 233 EC, which may involve its amending or withdrawing, as the case may be, any acts which have repealed and replaced the acts contested subsequent to the close of the oral procedure (see, to that effect, Joined Cases T-481/93 and T-484/93 Exporteurs in Levende Varkens and Others v Commission [1995] ECR II-2941, paragraphs 46 to 48).
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